Law graduate’s prized parting gift to alma mater

August 11, 2011

Tzi Yang, left, with Prof Tan Cheng Han, the Dean of the Faculty of Law

Tzi Yang (’11), a top student from the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law, has experienced first-hand, the selfless generosity of others. Coming from a single-parent family (his father passed away quite a few years back), Tzi Yang has won numerous awards and scholarships set up at NUS by companies and families to help deserving students like him. So, when it was his turn to give back to the alma mater as a part of Commencement Class, he gave something special: the prize money of the Chief Justice Prize that he had received.

“Someone else probably needs that money more than me right now,” said Tzi Yang, who is currently working at the Supreme Court as a Justices’ Law Clerk.

Tzi Yang has come a long way from the time he was making ends meet by working on a number of jobs, including private tutor, ad hoc furniture remover and editor at the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies while studying for his LLB degree at NUS and an LLM degree at NYU. He was enrolled in the highly competitive NUS-NYU dual degree programme. Remembering those days, he says, “The money from my benefactors kept me from living on the street in New York for the first few months I was there for my Masters programme.” The money came in handy in many other ways too as he was contributing substantially to family expenses.

It is now time for Tzi Yang to give back as, he says, “The day you decide to be selfish and stop giving back to the ecosystem, is the day the ecosystem stops functioning and starts dying.”

For more information on making a gift to NUS, please call Ms Ho Yuen Kwan at 6516 5755 or email askdvo@nus.edu.sg